The present application generally relates to the field of communications and, more particularly, to communications systems and related methods and computer program products.
A wide variety of communications services are available for users. For example, a single user may have a home phone, work phone, and mobile phone. In addition, the user may also use devices such as personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), and pagers for data communications, such as e-mail and instant messaging.
As communications services develop they offer more functionality and options. As a result, they are becoming more complex to use and manage. For example, a person could use a home phone, cellphone, work phone, e-mail, work e-mail and the like as communications services for different purposes or at different times. In addition, a number of phones and computers could be included in a home or office, thereby providing access to those communications services from different locations in the home or office. Different addresses or identifications could be associated with each of these phones and/or computers or other user input/output devices that may be used in connection with the communications services.
Recently, the concept of a single device capable of handling the functionality of multiple devices, for example, the home phone, the work phone, the mobile phone, the personal computer (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), pager and the like, has become very popular. Users of the device may subscribe to a service that may allow a subscriber to have several difference personas (profiles). Each of these personas may define a collection of data and/or behavior characteristics that encompass a particular mode of operation chosen and defined by a user. For example, a user may have a “work profile”, a “home profile”, a “parent profile” and the like. A work profile may include, for example, capabilities and/or data associated with the user's work phone. Such data and/or capabilities may include a call history, an address book, speed dialing codes, a forwarding number, billing arrangements, voicemail and the like. Similar data and/or capabilities may be provided for a user's home profile. The user may have any number of profiles. Thus, the user's single client device may be configured to operate according to one of a plurality of profiles.